Research

The Evolutionary Origins of Chemical Messengers in Humans

A collaborative programme with Professor David Scanlan (School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick) and Dr Andrew Millard (Warwick Medical School) building on the finding that retinoic acid is not, as generally thought, an animal "invention" but originates in cyanobacteria (Millard et al., 2014).
We are currently studying further lateral genetic transfer events using phylogenetic analysis and experimental study of chemical signals in "model" cyanobacteria using analytical chemistry and genetics techniques, all leading to new insights into both ecology and medicine.

A Chemical Genomics approach to Cancer Treatment

Our methods link drugs and natural products to genes that may affect cancer.
For example drug candidate VAL401, being developed by ValiSeek Limited, is the reformulation of an existing clinical drug to enable use instead in the treatment of cancer (Dilly et al. 2014).
Preclinical data indicate potential use of the reformulated drug in lung, pancreatic, breast and prostate cancers.
We are currently looking at the effects of retrotranspositional elements on the human genome and their implications in cancer and other disease.

Chemical Education

A student-engaged research programme (Lambert et al., 2012) around topics such as research-based learning, interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and enterprise education in tertiary education.